Russia wants to controll vessels navigating "The North": is it allowed to?

Alex Oude Elferink has published an article on the Russian Federation’s intent to introduce a notification duty for naval vessels wanting to navigate the Northern Sea Route on the website Raam op Rusland (Window on Russia).

The article Rusland wil vaart ‘om de noord’ controleren. Maar mag dat? (Russia wants to control the navigation ‘around the North’. But is that allowed?) submits that the Russian Federation would be allowed to establish such a condition for using the services of Russia’s Northern Sea Route Administration. However, the Russian Federation cannot impose a notification duty on naval vessels exercising their passage rights as defined in the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea and customary international law in the Russian Federation’s territorial sea anointed exclusive economic zone.